Author Archives: Ross
Beating fare evasion
I’ve recurrently told American cities to tear down the faregates. BART’s belts-and-suspenders fare enforcement is unnecessary, borne of a panic rather than of any calculation of costs and benefits to the system. But what BART should get rid of is not the ambassadors, but the faregates. The most successful transit city the rough size of […]
I took a Lyft home last night and feel shame about it. But how the heck are you supposed to get from Bamboo to the deep Northside after 10:00 PM?
I am listening to the loudest weed metal while I walk around the city today. This is not the best pedestrian behavior, but it feels good.
I’ve spent the entire afternoon working at the library listening to Sepultura.
Good morning only to my bus operator who narrowly avoided a truck driven by some asshat cutting across every single lane of Chamberlayne without even looking.
Subscribe to Bim Adewunmi’s newsletter
Dang, the writing in the most recent edition of Bim Adewunmi’s infrequent-but-excellent email newsletter is a billboard for why you should subscribe immediately: Flu is one of those diseases I am very fortunate to have had maybe only thrice so far — every time I have flu, I think about how every winter, people wrongly […]
Good afternoon only to my bus operator who laid on the horn because some dingdong was parked in the bus lane.
I get a lot of joy out of using new software—or even just picking up software I previously used to see how it’s changed and how it could now fit into my life. Currently, I’m back into [Ulysses](https://ulysses.app/) for a handful of minor, non-serious reasons, and it’s been fun to poke around.
Going into this year like:
If you move your hands down a row, instead of 2020 you get wowo!
Unlike feature films, ASMR videos *always* put liquid in the cup.
My son is terrified of the dentist. I am terrified of the dentist. So it ever was, so shall it ever be.
I watched ~50 movies in 2019
Here are all the ones I remembered to log (thanks to Letterboxd for enabling such simple imports/exports): Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker; 3.5; December 24, 2019 Suspiria; 4; December 22, 2019 The Ref; 4; December 15, 2019 Marriage Story; 5; December 6, 2019 The Matrix; 4.5; December 2, 2019 In the Tall Grass; 3.5; […]
Dungeons, Dragons, and Doritos
Last night I had the privilege to DM a kickoff session of D&D with my 11-year-old son and two of his friends. It was incredibly successful and everyone left excitedly bellowing about their characters and what they planned on doing during the next session. For me, the experience was joyful and life-giving—which sounds like, but […]
December 2019
Changing the default
From Valerie Catrow: “So, what do we do?” The words come out quivering. “Better,” I say, wrapping my arm around his shoulder and steering us forward, towards home. “We try to do better.”
Today I got angrily honked at by a driver while riding my bike
I was on a two-lane road in the left lane heading through an intersection. He was in the right lane turning right. There was no one else on the road, and the light was red. At first he started with a friendly beep, and, then, when I failed to disapparate, he laid on the horn […]
The first half of this decade I started a thing that I thought would be my foreverthing. The last half has been figuring out what to do with my life after it died.
Sticktoitiveness
I signed up for the 50-mile version of the Cap2Cap ride this coming May. I also signed my 11yo son up for the same thing? “Training” starts tomorrow! Whatever that means! I’m looking forward to and simultaneously dreading working on sticktoitiveness with him. It’s not either of our strong suits.